The World War II medals of Theodore W. Maybaugh of Dover — which had been sold several months ago at a storage auction — have been reunited with his grateful family.

Karen Walton of Freeport, who purchased the medals and Maybaugh's discharge papers, presented them Friday to Maybaugh's daughter, Lyn Gribble, at Eiler Candy Shop in Dover, where Gribble has worked since 1966.

"I'm glad to have them back," Gribble said before hugging Walton.

Walton was equally pleased.

"This feels awesome," she said. "I'm glad to meet the family and glad the medals are back where they belong."

On Tuesday, The Times-Reporter reported on Walton's quest to find Maybaugh's relatives and return the medals to them. After the story appeared, Gribble was deluged with calls from friends and Eiler's customers. "Everybody was calling me," she said.

Maybaugh was in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945, serving in Europe. He was wounded twice, on Sept. 3 and 8, 1943. He was shot in the leg and grazed in the head by a bullet. Those injuries earned him the Purple Heart.

Gribble remembered her father fondly.

"Dad was very intelligent and could do anything," she said, explaining that he worked on cars. "He could listen to it and tell you what was wrong with it."

She called him a good father. "He was strict, but I'm glad of it," she said.

When Maybaugh was grazed in the head, the bullet knocked off his helmet, Gribble said. He carried his toilet paper in his helmet. "He told us his toilet paper went flying everywhere," she recalled.

The war took its toll on Maybaugh. When he returned home, he would have bad nightmares at night.

"His grandparents came from Germany, and that bothered him," his daughter said. "He thought he might be killing his relatives."

In boot camp, his buddy was killed in basic training while they were learning how to use grenades. The buddy's grenade went off too soon, Gribble said.

Following his military service, Maybaugh worked at the Reeves Steel Mill, was a street sweeper in Dover and did carpentry work, she said. He is buried at Dover Burial Park.